Jimmy Howard Hall Eulogy

Given by: Harold Stockburger 10/24/2014

Almost 13 years ago, I met Jimmy Hall for the first time. To this day I'll never forget that night his daughter, now my wife took me to meet her dad. I'm sure every man here would agree with me on one thing, it doesn't matter if you are 16 or a few years older than that as I was, you are always nervous about meeting daddy for the first time.

But Jimmy on that night treated me like he had always known me, and never at anytime over these years have I ever felt anything but love and kindness when I have been in his presence. Anybody here who knew Jimmy knows exactly what I am talking about.

Over the years, I have come to know and have developed a deep respect for this man who has taught me a lot about keeping your priorities in order. You see, there were three things that were important to Jimmy. His God, which included his church, his family, and his work. Unlike most of us who seem to struggle with priorities, and trying to balance one priority or another, without neglecting the others, Jimmy never seemed to struggle with any of them, they all were important to him and like everything he did; he knew exactly how to make them all his priority.

For those here who never had the privilege to meet Jimmy, you really missed something, even in the hospital we kept telling the nurses to get ready to laugh once he woke up. You see, it never mattered who you were, within a few minutes of meeting Jimmy Hall, he always had a joke or story to tell. And if he ever managed to get one on you, be assured he would never forget it. Of course, even he was just as likely to tell one on himself as well.

His brother in law and best friend, Eddy shared one about the night they all went coon hunting down in South Georgia. During this particular hunt they had to cross a creek, now Jimmy had on a pair of boots that were about 18 inches tall and the water was about two foot deep. Now if you have ever waded across a creek and gotten your boots full of water you know there is only one thing you can do and that is stop and empty your boots as he did. Eddy tells that when they were about a hundred yards from the truck, Jimmy said "I hope we get to that truck soon, because my feet are killing me". Well at that point, Eddy turned around and shined his flashlight on Jimmy's feet and lo and behold he had put his boots on the wrong feet and stomped through those woods that way, and in his never give up way was determined to keep on going.

No one was spared, not even his "little hen", as he liked to call his soul mate of 61 years, Wilma. It seemed he absolutely loved telling stories on her, but he was the only one who could. Because if anybody else even tried to make fun of her, you would see a fire come into his eyes and he would get very silent, and quite possibly would cut you off in an instant.

Another great example of this was his sisters, anytime you were around all of them you knew he would somehow get you laughing at their expense. However, you let either one of them need anything or be in crisis, he was the first one there. It never mattered what time of the day or night it was, he dropped everything to help out family.

In recent years this loving husband, dad, and grandfather had a new priority, and that was his great grandsons Maddox and Charlie. Whenever he was with either of them no one else in the room mattered, and who knows how many tall tales or stories about the one that got away that Maddox knows. Recently he and Maddox would go on and on about squirrel hunting. Now keep in mind they have never been squirrel hunting together, but the way they would talk about killing the squirrel with one bullet that bounced off a rock and a limb and every time either of them told it, something else was added to it. Trust me, the legend of Daniel Boone killing a bear in Tennessee couldn't hold a candle to Pepaw and Maddox and the one shot squirrel rifle.

For those of you who've worked with Jimmy you know if there was anything that needed to be done he knew how to do it better, and would tell you so. A few years back I was tearing off and rebuilding the deck on our house and Jimmy wanted to help. Now, while I know a little about construction, and probably could have done most of it myself, there was no way I was turning down help from a man who built his own house with his bare hands and constructed an elevated carport that would make many engineers scratch their heads. For two days straight he stood out there with me in that hot Summer sun cutting and measuring to perfection. Let me assure you all I now have a deck that you could probably sit a semi on without it falling, and a ball would not roll across it because of how level it is. That was the perfectionist that was Jimmy Hall.

He believed if you worked for someone you owed them a complete days work, and you should do your very best every time. Work was very important to him, why else at 84 years old would he still get up and go to work 3 and 4 days a week. In fact three weeks ago this past Tuesday he sat in Dr. Morrison's office and told him "I'll go back to work in 3 weeks". While I know that gave the doctor and family a good laugh, he wasn't wrong. You see three weeks to the day God called him home, and as sure as you are sitting here today I guarantee you he is in Heaven showing Jesus just how he could hang those pearly gates a little bit better. More than likely though he is standing in a corner somewhere comparing fish stories with Peter. Or for those who know the story from the time he was ministering at his church, he is asking Zacchaeus how he, to quote Jimmy Hall (cliiimed) that sycamore tree. No matter what, I assure you that everyone there is having a good laugh right now.

On behalf of the entire family let me say thank you to each and every one of you who are here today to celebrate the life of Jimmy Hall. And the family wanted me to say a special thank you to Dr. Richard Morrison, and the team of doctors he assembled, the entire team of nurses, respiratory therapists, and other staff members of Memorial Hospital CVICU. You stood at his bedside 24 hours a day, you cried with us, prayed with us, and in the end helped us as Jimmy left this earth for his heavenly home. You'll never know in this side of Heaven just how much of a blessing you were to us.

For each of you who prayed that he would be healed, thank you, and be assured your prayers were answered, you see every day he was in the hospital, we saw another miracle, and at 11:59 Tuesday, he received his ultimate healing and will never suffer again. When the God he has faithfully served from childhood called him home to be with him. For you see we have no doubt about that because Jimmy Hall showed all of us his faith in Him every day. In fact, one of the last things he told all of us is, God's going to take care of me, and He did. Thank you!